Resources

‘Gandhi Would Be Grieved By India’s Treatment Of Civil Disobedience Today’

In this interview, Mary Elizabeth King, an expert on nonviolent resistance, discussed how Mohandas Gandhi’s civil disobedience influenced the American civil rights movement, and what he might think of India today. NEW DELHI — The United States and India, the world’s oldest and largest democracies, have been punishing their citizens for using civil disobedience to…
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November 15, 2020 0

This summer’s Black Lives Matter protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful, our research finds police and counterprotesters sometimes started violence.

                                   A protester holds a Black Lives Matter sign during a Juneteenth rally outside the Brooklyn Museum on June 19 in New York. (John Minchillo/AP) By. Erica Chenoweth and  Jeremy Pressman Oct. 16, 2020 at 3:00 a.m. PDT   When the Department of…
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October 19, 2020 0

‘The United States is in crisis’: Report tracks thousands of summer protests, most nonviolent

  By. Tim Craig September 3, 2020 at 2:57 p.m. PDT About 93 percent of the racial-justice protests that swept the United States this summer remained peaceful and nondestructive, according to a report released Thursday, with the violence and property damage that has dominated political discourse constituting only a minute portion of the thousands of demonstrations that…
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October 19, 2020 0

‘Begin with the children’ — How one Chicago native spreads peace from schools to jails

  Question: What do Rwanda, Stateville Correctional Center, the Cook County Jail, and elementary schools across Chicago have in common? Answer: Henry Cervantes.  A Little Village native — his license plate references “The Village” —Cervantes is a 32-year-old community organizer, activist and peacemaker. As program manager for Holy Family Ministries’ Peace Exchange, he leads two programs:…
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February 5, 2020 0

Gandhi and King on the “Arduous Beautiful Struggle” Lessons Going Forward

Gandhi’s Global Legacy – Keynote 1: James Lawson & Mary Elizabeth King Fresno State 2019.


December 9, 2019 0

Communications, and Why It’s Vital For Today’s Nonviolent Campaigns and Movements

By. Mary Elizabeth King Despite the tumult in Mississippi Freedom Summer’s 1964 Jackson headquarters, the function of communications was ongoing and sometimes life-saving. On most days, Mary King was working to break news stories, or speaking with reporters as seen here. © George Ballis   Nonviolent campaigns usually seize the latest technologies available, perhaps leading…
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October 9, 2019 0

Can we celebrate Gandhi’s achievements while also learning from his errors?

By. Mary Elizabeth King While Gandhi is rightly criticized on untouchability and gender issues, his method of struggle has informed countless social movements over the last century. This is part two of a series commemorating the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth. The first, which focused on Gandhi’s life and work in South Africa, can be read here.…
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October 7, 2019 0

How South Africa forced Gandhi to reckon with racism and imperialism

By. Mary Elizabeth King Gandhi recuperating at the home of the Rev. J.J. Doke, Gandhi’s first biographer, in Johannesburg, after having been assaulted on February 10, 1908. (Wikimedia)   Born 150 years ago, Gandhi’s perceptions about human sensibilities, social power and political truths began their transformation not in India, but South Africa. Born 150 years…
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October 7, 2019 0

Remembering Vaikom satyagraha in the light of Sabarimala [Hindu Temple]

By Ramachandra Guha, The News Minute, Sunday, January 06, 2019. In the last week of January 1924—fully 95 years ago—two radicals in Kerala formed an ‘Anti-Untouchability Committee’. They were TK Madhavan, a journalist and a follower of the great Shri Narayana Guru; and KP Kesava Menon, a Congressman and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. In the months…
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January 18, 2019 0

Lawson to receive Congressional Gold Medal

By Deryl Davis. November 15, 2018 In the course of his life as an activist, the Rev. James Lawson has endured racial epithets, accusations of anarchy, threats of physical violence, expulsion from a leading university, overnight lock-ups and months in prison. Now, the government which often opposed Lawson’s work for civil and human rights in decades past…
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December 5, 2018 0